1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to graphical displays of linked items, and more particularly to maps of linked network devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Map or topological displays provide better way to represent connected data because they provide easy to understand flat, visual views of data and provide high level overview and details when needed. However, for large networks, it is often not feasible to display all elements to a user in a single view. The connectivity between the nodes is simply too big for the user to grasp the information at a glance. Current solutions offer an entire map view, with tiering or condensing occurring at certain locations or levels, or provide overview map and a current view port which shows a small portion of the overall map. However, these solutions are not scalable and not straight forward for tracking connectivity between nodes. In some cases strategies to filter and/or navigate the map display and the connectivity have been used, but that still hampers tracking connectivity and the like. Therefore a method and system to allow large connected networks to be explored interactively is needed.